What awaits South Korea in the 35th Jones Cup
The 2013 35th William Jones Cup to be held in Taiwan, July 6- July 14, 2013
marks the return of the South Korean national team since last participating
in the 33rd edition of that tournament. Last year, the national team did not
participate but the KBL champions, Anyang KGC participated.
From the 2011 Jones Cup the remnants of that team are Kim Joo-Sung, Park
Chan-Hee, Yang Dong-Geun and Kim Jong-Kyu. Moon Tae-Jong, the older brother
of Moon Tae-Young was a member of that team. Two big absentees are Ha
Seung-Jin who is serving in the military and the hardworking power forward Oh
Se-Keun, who is out of the national team as he is recovering from a plantar
injury.
While this is the first training tournament for veterans like Yang Dong-Geun
and Kim Joo-Sung alongside other KBL players, younger players who were
members of the gold medal winning championship team from the 2013 East Asian
Basketball Tournament such as Kim Jong-Kyu, Lee Jong-Hyun, Kim Min-Koo and
veterans like Park Chan-Hee and Yoon Ho-Young will be more familiar with the
participating East Asian national teams for this year as they have played
against Chinese Taipei and Japan. Korea won over those countries in the East
Asia tournament with mostly amateurs and military call up players.
Participating teams are:
Japan
South Korea
Chinese Taipei National Team
Chinese Taipei Development Team
Iran
Lebanon
Egypt
Jordan
United States Jones Cup Team
Much like South Korea, the Asian national teams that are participating in
this tournament are all preparing for the 27th FIBA Asia Men’s Championship
to be held in Manila, Philippines next month. Top three finishers will
qualify to the 2014 FIBA World Cup.
July 6, 2013 – Egypt
Korea’s first test is against the unknown. Yoo Jae-Hak is unfazed and have
said that despite the non-existant scouting reports against their opening day
opponents, Korea will be ready with their gameplan. The Egyptians, bannered
by mostly the national team members and players from the Al Ittihad club will
have Minnesota State’s Assem Marei at center. Players like Haytham Kamal and
Ibrahim El Gamal are fresh from the 2013 Mediterranean Games as a part of
their preparations for the 2013 Afrobasket, Africa’s qualifiers for the 2014
World Cup.
Against the unknown, Yoo Jae-Hak plans to impede their offense with his
vaunted full court press and man to man pressure defense. Egypt’s team is
taller and more muscular than the Koreans, and playing the full court press
will lead into a war of attrition where the taller and stronger team usually
wins by virtue of being much more fit. But that is just the defense, the
gambit of pressing may hamper the offense of Egypt that based on reports from
the 2013 Mediterranean Games, utilizes a 2-3 half-court motion that keeps
constant pressure against teams to reinforce the weakside and leave a post
player an opening to operate. South Korea’s interior defense will be tested,
and it means work for Kim Joo-Sung, Kim Jong-Kyu, Lee Jong-Hyun and Choi
Bu-Kyong.
Korea’s offense will also need to sharper. Given Yoo Jae-Hak’s guard oriented
pressing guard offense that resembles Mike D’Antoni’s Phoenix and New York
days, Yang Dong-Geun, Kim Tae-Sol will need to be on top of their game;
advancing the ball quickly against an Egyptian press to go straight into the
baseline and orchestrate by either scoring, passing through traffic or direct
defenders away from an open lane that cutting players can exploit.
In a match against a team you never played, nor you will not have to worry
about, best to test the waters and count it as experience.
July 7, 2013 – Chinese Taipei Development Team
Korea is confident in this one. They have beaten the Chinese Taipei national
team in the East Asian tournament with mainly college players alongside Park
Chan-Hee and Yoon Ho-Young. Now they are full force going into Sunday’s
match. Discipline and team work has what made the victory in a show of force,
possible. This is a development team after all, composed of younger players
who are being tested and checked to see if they may make the grade for the
main roster. But, much like the national team A of Taiwan, they prefer an
uptempo pressure offense, in which fatigue could be an issue for veterans
like Yang Dong-Geun and Kim Joo-Sung since they have played Egypt the other
day. To face a young and spirited team, Korea’s defense will be tested here
out of the resiliency to press and trap the guards like spitfire Cheng
Yin-Chun and Peng Chun-Yen to boggle the offense.
Succeeding in controlling the tempo right out of the inbound play will impede
the pressure offense, thus saving South Korea the much needed leg work as
opposed to running and gunning against a rested team. With Korea’s size
advantage, we could see Yoo playing a much more post oriented game where Kim
Jong-Kyu and Lee Jong-Hyun will be given much more freedom to establish a
presence and operate by post isolation or front-up dives to demoralize the
smaller team. Defensive rebounding will be a key, as Korea enjoys a bigger
front-court compared to Taiwan’s smaller bigmen of Wang Hung-Hsing, Liu
Yuankai and others. Complacency serves no one and Yoo knows that. What is
important is the mindset of being mentally prepared compared to the adaptive
mindset of playing easy or go hard depending on who you are against. Yoo
Jae-Hak wants a mindset that is contingent with anything.
July 8, 2013 Team USA Jones Cup
A team is athletic and less tactical. Team USA is looking to run and gun. Yoo
Jae-Hak does not know this team, but Lee Sang-Beom knows this team. After
all, his Anyang KGC and point guard Kim Tae-Sol played against some members
of this team. For one, Team USA’s head coach, Travis McAvine stirred the team
in the Jones Cup last year that finished runner up to the Philippines. Four
members are returning: Marcus Melvin, Jermaine Barnes, Curtis Marhsall and
Mychal Kearse that is to lead the core of new recruits. Bigman Cyril Awere is
the tallest at 210 CM. Gamble Owens, was drafted by the Milwaukee Bucks in
the 2004 NBA draft will bring in experience compared to the much younger
squad last year.
This USA squad under McAvine is an uptempo running team that forces
transition for fast-break lay-ups alongside those quick hitters out of the
old Bobby Knight charges. Meaning 1-1-2 push, 1-1-3 fire and 1-2-1 flare. All
three are designed for quick wing penetration that puts the pressure on the
middle rather than the high baseline or in the low block. Had this been the a
Korean team under Choi Bo-Young in the East Asian tournament, Korea would
have done better than survive it as their defensive traps quickly rotates and
covers the middle out of ball break denial that also covers and pins an
opposite of the block. But this is Yoo Jae-Hak’s defense. Will this have the
discipline and coordination that the team under Cho can boast about? Incoming
quick attacks out of quick hitters has so many instances of incursions
against the paint. The wings lead by Yoon Ho-Young will be busy and the
incoming traffic of attackers to the paint will challenge Korea’s
shotblocking in Lee Jong-Hyun, Kim Jong-Kyu and Kim Joo-Sung. Korea’s best
bet is to avoid falling into a run and gun game. That is not Korea’s game.
Korea’s man to man and transition defense are still vulnerable since time
immemorial, but their collective defense is something that they can bank on
against the athletic and fast paced Team USA.
July 9, 2013 Lebanon
This is a different Lebanese team that Korea will play. Unlike in 2011, this
Lebanese team is much more experienced and if the legend, Fadi El-Khatib will
play, South Korea might find a dilemma who to guard him. The most experience
winger who has played in South America and Europe that has guarded the body
types of Khatib is Moon Tae-Young. Khatib alone is a threat against the
wings, but take a look at an emposing front-line that is big and stronger
than Korea’s front-line: Ali Haidar (202cm), Roy Samaha (206cm), Ali Kanaan
(206cm) and naturalized player Loren Woods (218cm). Kim Joo-Sung, Lee Seung
as well as Choi Bu-Kyong are used to seeing those heights in the KBL, but how
well will Kim Jong-Kyu and Lee Jong-Hyun do against bigger and stronger
players compared to the Korean college league? For the guards, Yang Dong-Geun
and Kim Tae-Sol are veterans and have atleast a couple of games against
Middle East teams like Iran and Jordan to know that Lebanese guards like
Rodrigue Akl and Mohammad Ibrahim are not only built stronger, but their
speed and quickness are deceptive. Pressing on every defensive instance
against the back-court may prove some luck, though expects some bumps and
bruises. How well will Korea handle the physicalty?
Fadi El-Khatib used to isolate a lot, but when he got older, had been
learning to catch and shoot out of the corner. Playing for Champsville in
Lebanon, he would pass by a point guard in a baseline setup then through a
staggered screen for an open shot. While Ghassan Sarkis uses a traditional
2-in 3-out motion offense with offensive spacing for the designated scorers
like Khatib, Korea could counter with a switch, assuming they are not taken
out by a jarring screen.
Against a taller team, pushing an uptempo game would help negate the Lebanese
size wherein Woods is not made for a running game that covers back and forth
running, Korean players like Lee Jong-Hyun and Kim Jong-Kyu are not your
traditional bigmen. Lean, a bit strong and can run, that could prove to their
advantage. Swarm the post if Lebanon goes to players like Woods for post up
action, force a turnover and incorporate a running game. It could work at a
time where Lebanon are still learning to gel with one another as they have
been formed in just three weeks.
July 10, 2013 Iran
Familiar faces are here from the bouts of Korea-Iran in the matches. 2011 saw
Iran dominating the Koreans with size as Hamed Haddadi then shutdown Ha
Seung-Jin and scored over him with skill, size and force. Asghar Kardoust, a
workhorse who rebounded and played physical is also here. Samad Nikkhah
Bahrami, their most potent scorer is present. Once again, the front-court of
Lee Jong-Hyun, Kim Jong-Kyu, Lee Seung-Jun and Choi Bu-Kyong will not only be
tested but be given a taste of how Iran, their groupmates in the 27th FIBA
Asia championship next month will play against them. Yoo Jae-Hak stated that
meeting Iran in the Jones Cup will net valuable inputs for the time where
they clash in Manila for about a month’s time. Hur Jae’s 2011 national team
hardly made a dent on the interior of Iran and the guards were reduced to
jumpshooters as Iran’s defense proved to be an earth wall. Korea is a
different team when they are shooting the lights out as compared to being
reduced to a jumpshooting team. Korean teams perform the best out of
misdirection sets in the middle that leads to a curled up release out of a
screen. A classic playbook.
The difference of this 2013 Korean team is that there is no Ha Seung-Jin; no
posting up against Haddadi. 2011 saw Ha Seung-Jin being rejected or cough the
ball and it more than stagnated the offense; Korea’s offense grinded to a
halt and was reduced to a jump-shooting low percentage team. This 2013
version is expected to play on the high top, have a guard break in from the
baseline and the post player dive in for a recepient pass or be a decoy for
the guard so as to pass to a cutter or a rotating shooter. We will see on how
the offense structure will fare against Iran’s orthodox zones of the 2-3
Interior box. On defense, Korea’s bigman wingmen and guards will be tested.
Mohammad Jamshidi is the new breed of guards that are oriented in the
European mindset; set up plays and rotate while directing the offense
off-ball. On offense, they can slash and cut without much resistance. They
are tall and strong, something that will give trouble to Kim Sun-Hyung, Kim
Tae-Sol and Park Chan-Hee.
This is the game where Korea is indeed an underdog. Iran has a history of
starting slow in the Jones Cup, but after a scrimmages with European and
African teams, their fitness is much better compared to those years. This
Iran team is a potential Jones Cup champion.
July 11, 2013 Jordan
Jordan has changed since going second behind China in the 2011 FIBA Asia
championship. Naturalized star player, Rasheim Wright is not with the team
and Zaid Abbas, the center and glue of the team is also out for the summer.
Osama Daghles is out and is recovering from an injury. The new naturalized
player is Jimmy Baxter, a 33 year old slotman that plays center and power
forward. His game resembles that of Ulsan Mobis Phoebus center, Rod Benson.
Frame, power and toughness will once again challenge Korea’s front-line.
Unlike Lebanon and Iran, Korea has slated this game as winnable; although
that could be counted as complaceny amidst the unknown opponent. Jordan’s
head coach Vangilis Alexandris has the better preparation schedule as Jordan
played African champions, Tunisia and European teams like Macedonia on their
buildup for this tourney. Alexandris, a tactician knows how to utilize a
group over having an individual do free-will to win. Tactics are hashed
better as a group. His main motion offense is called the Thessaloniki
Triange, but is not similar to the legendary triangles of Phil Jackson and
Tex Winters. This trinagle is more of a weak-side interior post to far
opposite wing adjacent to a proing guard. Vangilis Alexandris has run this
set from his days with Iraklis Thessaloniki all the way to the present day
Aris Thessaloniki. Since his version of the triangle is aimed at the
weakside, his strong-side is center on the first instance of a guard
advancing to the strong side with the offense resembling a classic 2-3 Out
zone offense. A quick pass to the elbows for a post player that looks to the
strong side, that is where the action begins. Adjacent outer triangles
consisting of the wing and guard could either cut and rotate to the high
baseline for a shot while at the back, which is now the weak-side, can rotate
half-way into the baseline for an open looks also while the other post can
make a quick cut for a score.
Yoo Jae-Hak has not faced a seasoned tactician and this is where Korea’s
chances are more on his shoulders than his players. Seasoned players like Kim
Joo-Sung are not aware of such a setup. Misdirection leading to quick attacks
at this level of variation are unheard of in the KBL. The lack of scouting
could see Korea falling to Jordan.
July 12, 2013 Japan
South Korea beat Japan convincingly in the 2013 East Asia Basketball
tournament. At that time, that was a national team under Choi Bo-Young that
is very disciplined on defense, able to stagger Kimikazu Suzuki’s high top
baseline drives with quick press ups agains the ball handler and the quick
rotate towards the fold and the wing nearest to the ball handler. Japan was
freshly assembled there. With only two weeks of playing together. Since then,
Japan has made strides in spreading the floor and having a pick and roll game
that not only serves the high baseline, but also utilizes proper floor
spacing for both strong side and weak-side. This Korean team is not the same
Korean team in terms of discipline, but for every man, Korea has the manpower
to overpower Japan, especially in the front-court. No word if Japan will
finally suit up JR Sakuragi, an integral part of Suzuki’s offense and another
is Joji Takeuchi, who stretches the floor with his shooting. The two may play
or not depending on recovery that will be determined this week.
South Korea’s press will prove troublesome for the Japanese. Makoto Hiejima
and Ryota Sakurai are pushing the ball, but this team lacks the leadership
and the pure point talent of Takumi Ishizaki, who is playing abroad and will
skip this summer’s FIBA activities. As per front-court match-ups, Lee
Jong-Hyun, Kim Jong-Kyu alongside Kim Joo-Sung and Lee Seung-Jun are more
than capable of handling Kosuke Takeuchi and Atsuya Ota. The main problem
will be Japan’s version of the pressure offense, they will push the ball in
transition, which happens to be Korea’s weakness ever since. Key is
discipline and rebounding to smother the Japanese fast break.
July 14, 2013 Chinese Taipei National Team
This is another team that has gone changes for the past two months. Aside
from Tseng Wen-Ting, their star center, Taiwan has enlisted the services of
Pure Youth’s star foreign player, QUincy Davis as the naturalized player to
fill the void of height and rebounding in Taiwan’s teams. Davis is the first
naturalized player of Taiwan out of an SBL team.
Hsu Chin-Tse knows how to utilize a fast-breaking team, the one that South
Korea encountered in the 2012 East Asia tournament; with size. Example is the
1-in and 4-out space offense that he implemented for the Pure Youth team that
won the 2013 SBL championship. Quincy Davis gets the space he needs to
isolate in the post of be given elbow freedom to operat front-up and face up.
Four players are strategically placed to catch and shoot or cut depending on
how the defense converges. That team can run and this national team can run.
Quincy Davis can run the break and slam it home. Another challenge for
Korea’s front-court. Jet Chang, their main gunner will be covered by Park
Chan-Hee and Kim Min-Koo. Strong buffer zones gave Taiwan trouble in their
previous meeting. But this team has Davis now, who can rebound and score in
the paint.
Yoo Jae-Hak knows something of a lone offensive presence in the paint while
four are stationed outside, after all, that is his offense with Ulsan. Rod
Benson in the middle with Yang Dong-Geun and Moon Tae-Young awaiting at the
wings. This game is winnable for Korea.
Sakerland 